Focus: Programming

This month, we let programmers tell us how they work, from programming on clusters to building GUIs with X and Motif—it's all here. Multi-threaded programs are hot and so is Python.

Programming has become as much a part of
our everyday lives as breathing. Some of us do it; some of us use
it; all of us are affected by it. We encounter it when we use an
ATM machine, drive a car, check out at the grocery store, and sit
in front of the TV or computer. It's interesting and fun to do.
Nothing beats the feeling of writing a good application that gets
used by many others—it's a source of pride. Nothing feels worse
than writing a good application that gets scrapped and never used.
Actually, this brings up one of the good points of free software:
you write it, put it out on the Web, and people who need it use it;
nothing gets put in the bit bucket. Only in the commercial
environment can a boss say, “We've decided to abort that project
you've been working on for the last six months”--and your work
disappears forever.

This month, we let programmers tell us how they work, from
programming on clusters to building GUIs with X and Motif—it's all
here. Multi-threaded programs are hot and so is Python. Learn how
to use the two together; then use LCLint to debug all that new code
you've been writing. We also have articles on Palm Pilot
development tools and writing a simple plotting program (see
“Strictly On-line”). We also talk again to Darryl Strauss to find
out what is happening in the world of 3-D graphics.

Python

Some people collect spoons, others collect languages. Eric
Raymond collects languages, and his latest find is Python. We've
liked Python for a long time and so decided not only to include a
feature article on Python in this issue, but also publish an entire
supplement devoted to it. That supplement comes to you with this
issue. We hope you enjoy it.

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